I can extend characters like this:- 「さ → さあ」It becomes from a short「Sa」 to a long 'A'ed 「Saa」... Right?

BUT how do i pronunciate this:

- 「け → けい」 It is「Ke」and becomes 「Kee」 BUT do i pronunciate it 「Kee」 OR 「Kei」?

Because i read this

while the / e / vowel sound followed by 「い」 is usually considered to a long vowel sound, the pronunciation is actually a slurred connection of the / e / and / i / vowel sounds. In other words, it should be pronounced like / ay / (as in "acorn") and not just a long / e /.

If you were to really slow it down けい would sound like ke+ee, but when spoken at natural speed it will sounds closer to 'kay' as the sounds merge. Examples:携帯電話（けいたいでんわ）sounds like kaytai denwa （mobile phone)余計 （よけい） sounds like yokay (unnecessary/too much).

In both examples the sound almost mirrors that of 'hey/okay/nay/day' etc at natural speed.

It's almost impossible to avoid "ay" in けい so you pronounce it like that. Don't try to differentiate and magnify the two vowel sounds as it will end up sounding strange; it's just a natural slurring of the two sounds.

Stick at Hiragana until you can do it in your sleep, and don't think about kanji until its done. The faster you can get away from Romaji the better. The sounds for katakana are parallel with hiragana. Katakana is noticeably more difficult to remember however, if only because you won't come across it as often. The japanese R sound sits between R and L... I can't explain it in words. You're better off watching some J-Drama or anime to get used to how that sounds.

Kk buddy! Btw Iam not even doing romaji, this is my second day and iam playing "memmory" games to learn each character of Hiragana... But cmon its so hard to remember them! This will take a while, I better find some "Learn Japanese" classes around my neighbourhood

And for the L and R sound, i think i understood 100% what you meant! But still gonna check it out..Again Thanks alot!

squarezebra wrote:If you were to really slow it down けい would sound like ke+ee, but when spoken at natural speed it will sounds closer to 'kay' as the sounds merge.

Most materials teach that けい is pronounced けえ, not like け+い at all. (However, this does apparently vary depending on dialect.) Most Japanese that I've heard -- which is admittedly "textbook" Japanese and not Japanese on TV, the streets, etc. -- seems to confirm this.

The Pocket Kenkyusha Japanese Dictionary even carries this over into its romanization: せんせい is under "sensee", not "sensei".

Gotta agree with furrykef, "kay" for けい would sound really really odd to me. Maybe the confusion is that Japanese "e" isn't "eh" as in "get", nor "ay" as in "gate", but somewhere between the two. But that doesn't really change with the addition of an い after it, and there's no diphthong in けい. Not in any Japanese I've heard. The only exception that comes to mind would be words like えいえん.

micahcowan wrote:Gotta agree with furrykef, "kay" for けい would sound really really odd to me. Maybe the confusion is that Japanese "e" isn't "eh" as in "get", nor "ay" as in "gate", but somewhere between the two. But that doesn't really change with the addition of an い after it, and there's no diphthong in けい. Not in any Japanese I've heard. The only exception that comes to mind would be words like えいえん.

Depends on your own accent and how you say 'kay'; some people seem to drag out the vowel and and sound the 'y' and that does sound really weird. Without getting overly technical and smart, I can confidently say you'd have little trouble being understood with a short and snappy 'ay' sound for けい even if it isn't 100% textbook accurate. Its almost impossible to have this discussion on a forum though because I have no idea what your frame of reference for sounds/dialects/accents is.

micahcowan wrote:Gotta agree with furrykef, "kay" for けい would sound really really odd to me. Maybe the confusion is that Japanese "e" isn't "eh" as in "get", nor "ay" as in "gate", but somewhere between the two. But that doesn't really change with the addition of an い after it, and there's no diphthong in けい. Not in any Japanese I've heard. The only exception that comes to mind would be words like えいえん.

This just caught my eye, ehm as said Im only a beginner and i guess えいえん is pronunciated like "e-e-en" ? Right? As I understood whenever theres a "い" After a "え" the "い" gets pronunciated like a "え" ...?

In terms of the first 「あいうえお」examples,かあさん can be pronounced like かーさんにいさん can be pronounced like にーさんくうき can be pronounced like くーきねえさん can be pronounced like ねーさんこうしん can be pronounced like こーしん

Or, we actually use a sound in between.計算機 can be pronounced like けーさんき永遠 can be pronounced like えーえん

時計 can also be pronounced like とけーBut please note that people who use too many prolonged sounds might be seem "childish" or "uneducated". If not, it sounds casual in many cases. It depends on the context, though.For instance, a proper news caster would call 携帯電話 keitai-denwa or keetai-denwa. On street, many (especially young people) call it ケータイ.よけーなお世話だ！ would sound blunt.よけいなお世話です！ would sound relatively proper.よけえなお世話だよ！ would also sound ok. a little bit hard-assed.